The present invention relates to an automatic storage system used in the field of medical science, pharmacy, agriculture, clinical medicine, and bio-technology. More particularly, the invention relates to such automatic storage system for storing a plurality of sample containers and picking up a selected sample container(s).
As a result of technological innovation in various fields such as medical science, pharmacy, agriculture, clinical medicine, and bio-technology, various kinds of testing samples must be investigated. To this effect, greater numbers of sample containers accumulating therein various kind of testing samples such as blood, ferment, gene, a chemical compound, a chemical reagent must be stored and picked-up for the investigation.
A conventional automatic storage system is shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. The storage system includes a storage section 110 for storing a plurality of sample containers 2 accommodated in a plurality of racks 3, a transfer section 120 for picking-up a rack 3 from the storage section 110, and a repacking section 126 for picking up one or several sample containers from the rack 3 or accommodating other sample container(s) into the rack 3. The storage system also includes a control section 130 for controlling operation of the storage section 110, the transfer section 120 and the repacking section 126.
In the storage section 110, a plurality of shelves 114 area arrayed side by side, and these shelves 114 are circularly moved as shown by an arrow F in FIG. 9. In each shelf 114, a plurality of racks 3 are vertically arrayed and held in positions. The storage section 110 has an elongated configuration.
The transfer section 120 is positioned at one longitudinal end of the storage section 110. The transfer section 120 includes an arm robot and a belt conveyer movable in both horizontal and vertical direction as shown by arrows G and H for picking up a selected one of the racks 3 from a selected one of the shelf 114 moved and stopped beside the transfer section 120 and for transferring the selected rack 3 to the repacking section 126. The transfer section 120 is also adapted for transferring the rack 3 from the repacking section 126 to the storage section 110.
The repacking section 126 is positioned beside the transfer section 120 at a position opposite to the storage section 110. The repacking section 126 includes a picker mechanism 129 and a stand 122 on which a receptible rack 4 is to be mounted. The picker mechanism 129 is adapted for picking up a selected sample container 2 from the rack 3 and accommodates the selected sample container 2 into the receptible rack 4. The repacking section 126 is also adapted for accommodating a sample container 2 from the receptible rack 4 to the rack 3.
The control section 130 stores therein data indicative of position of each sample container 2 and each rack 3, and transmits command signal to the storage section 110, the transfer section 120 and the repacking section 126. More specifically, when a specific sample container 2 is input through the control section 130, the storage section 110 performs circular movement so that a specific rack 3 accommodating therein the specific sample container 2 can be positioned in confrontation with the transfer section 120 based on the position data of the racks and the sample containers. Then, the transfer section 120 picks up the specific rack 3 from the storage section 110, and transfers the specific rack 3 to the repacking section 126 where the picker mechanism 129 picks-up the specific sample container 2 from the specific rack 3, and accommodates the specific sample container 2 into the receptible rack 4 mounted on the case stand 122. Then the specific rack 3 is returned to the storage section 110 by the transfer section 120. This operation is repeatedly performed so that desired sample containers 2 can be accommodated into the receptible rack 4.
The above described conventional automatic storage system becomes bulky due to linear orientation among the storage section 110, the transfer section 120 and the repacking section 126. Therefore, a large room is required for setting the storage system.
Further, in the conventional system, the numbers of the testing tubes picked up from the racks 3 is dependent on the capacity of the receptible rack 4. The numbers of the sample containers 2 to be picked up can be increased by using a plurality of receptible racks 4. In the latter case, the plurality of receptible racks 4 are stored in the storage section 110. However, the numbers of the receptible racks 4 may be limited due to storage capacity of the storage section 110 where a plurality of racks 3 are also stored.
To overcome this problem, another storage section may be provided for exclusively storing the plurality of receptible rack 4. However, in this case, another robot must be required for automatically supplying the receptible rack(s) from the other storage section to the repacking section 126. As a result, an entire storage system becomes extremely bulky and costly.
Further, due to repeated picking-up and storing operations, sample containers 2 may be scattered over various racks 3. Therefore, the sample containers must be in trim order in the reduced numbers of racks 3. For the proper arrangement of the sample containers, an operator must be manually repack the sample containers among the racks in the storage section 110. However in this case, the position data of the sample containers and racks may be destroyed.
In the conventional automatic repacking operation, the storage section 110 must perform circular movement until the desired rack 3 is brought into confrontation with the transfer section 120, and this circular movement must be performed each time the desired sample container must be picked up by the picker mechanism 129 from each rack 3 while the identical receptible rack 4 remains on the stand 122. Such process is extremely complicated.
Moreover, storage work for storing each one of the sample containers 2 into the storage section 110 can be easily performed in the conventional automatic storage system. However, extremely prolonged period must be required in order to store great numbers of sample containers at once into the storage section 110 in case of the initial setting.
Japanese patent application Publication No.2002-205804 discloses storage shelves positioned side by side, and an automatic pick-up device runs between the storage shelves for picking up a desired rack from the shelf, and for transferring the picked up rack to a transfer box outside of the shelves. Further, an external station is positioned for picking up a container or a test tube accommodated in the rack.
Japanese patent application Publication no. 2002-234601 discloses a pair of shelves each circularly moved in a vertical direction. A rail extends through a space between the pair of shelves, and a transfer unit runs along the rail.